This figure IS NOT the Death Star Droid.  The Death Star Droid is the glossy black RA-7 droid known as 5D6-RA-7.  You can briefly see that droid pass in front of the Stormtrooper-disguised Han and Luke as they’re awaiting the elevator to transport Chewie to the detention cell:

(click for the full sized image)

This figure is in fact MB-RA-7.  in Kenner parlance, this would be known as the “Sandcrawler Droid”, which has a silver finish.  It can be seen several times in the interior of the Jawa Sandcrawler that abducted R2-D2 and C-3PO:

(click for the full sized image)

So why did Hasbro make this mistake?  As most of you know, they didn’t.  Kenner did back in 1978:

(click for the full sized image)

I can’t stress enough how much I hate that Hasbro did this.  It kills me that the MB-RA-7 will forever be known as the Vintage Collection “Death Star Droid”.  Kenner was often working off of black and white set photos with limited information.  Making these type of mistakes was forgivable.  Hasbro has nearly unrestrained access to archival materials and is operating during the information age.  They should be fixing these mistakes, and that’s exactly what they used to do in the Vintage Collection.  A similar mistake was made with the vintage Kenner Rebel Soldier (Hoth Battle Gear) figure.  In the Vintage Collection, Hasbro corrected that mistake with a pair of releases, namely VC68 - Rebel Soldier (Echo Base Battle Gear) and VC120 - Rebel Soldier (Hoth).  Hasbro should have done the same here.  This figure and card photo should have been released as Sandcrawler Droid (MB-RA-7), and then 5D6-RA-7 should have been released on a new card with the “Death Star Droid” name pill.

Having said that, I absolutely love the look of this card.  It’s stunning and completely takes me back to my childhood.  I actually have more fondness for the 20/21 backs than I do for the original 12 figures, and that’s strictly a memory issue.  Despite being released in the same year, I only have fleeting memories of getting the 12-back figures, but I vividly remember the 20-backs.  The fact that the line was expanding was a pretty big deal back then.  Little did we know that it would continue for over forty years.  And little did my parents know that I would still be buying them.  Had they known, they might have gotten me into something a little less obsessive, like golf.

As for the figure itself, it’s fairly limited since it’s using a buil-a-droid sculpt from 2008.  It’s not just that it lacks wrist and ankle articulation, but types of articulation it does have are limiting whether they be the swivel shoulders or hinged knees.  The knees only serve the purpose of allowing the figure to sit, which the character actually does on-screen.  Trying to balance the figure with the knees bent simply isn’t practical.  Due to the hinged knees, you can’t even rotate the back foot for the familiar “kickstand leg” pose. Where Hasbro stepped up the game for this release is with the paint applications.  While not vac metalized, the silver paint is highly reflective and gives a metallic appearance.  It’s much better than the dull gray plastic of its predecessor.  Additionally, Hasbro added several grime paint applications to really sell the used universe look.  It’s a great reminder that the paint applications, which are costly, are just as important for distinguishing the premium Vintage Collection line as is articulation.

The original release received a score of “6”.  I need to acknowledge the greatly improved paint applications, so I’m giving this release a 7 out of 10, but if our scoring system allowed it, I would give it a 6.5.